Dishing Up the Dirt Rebrand & Web Redesign

With her first book launch in the near future, Andrea Bemis, owner, farmer and chef of Dishing Up the Dirt food blog, wanted to refresh her branding and redesign her site to feel more like a lifestyle brand, and less like the standard WordPress template she had long out grown.

This was the first redesign for Dishing Up the Dirt logo. The goals were to make it more approachable, sophisticated and grown up. We did away with the coloured gradient, but kept Andrea's beloved Beet icon, her self proclaimed spirit vegetable. The final logo utilizes the same idea of the first logo, with an upgraded custom font face and new horizontally balanced, primary layout.

For the site, our primary goal was to make the site feel more dynamic, expanding the conversation from just a blog to a lifestyle site where people want to explore. The new homepage reads more like a story, letting people get a larger perspective of all the recipe types Dishing Up the Dirt offers. Functionality, and search ability were also very important goals. We wanted to give viewers the reigns in food selections, a choose your own adventure recipe journey through the dedicated Veggie pages and dynamic filtering system on the Recipe landing page. Lastly, we wanted to share Andrea's character and rich personal story in a visually appealing way, and be able to feature her book, and other exciting future ventures on her About page.

barre3 Rebrand

Barre3 was already a leader in the Barre industry. Now they were ready to take the next step and become a leader in the Health and Fitness industry. But first, they needed a new website.

My team thoroughly evaluated the brand look, voice, tone and to make sure our message was clear: The class is King and a balanced lifestyle is our Queen. Using this mantra as our Northstar, we created a new visual aesthetic with esteemed photographer Rafael Astorga that embodied the energy, motion and feeling of the class experience. The site took on a much more modern look, embracing white space, san serifed fonts, clean CTAs and a simplified logo.

The launch of the new site perfectly coincided with open enrollment for barre3’s largest annual campaign event, the barre3 January Challenge. The new look got rave reviews from clients, fans and PR alike but more importantly, it allowed for a 50% increase in subscriptions within the first month.

I directed creative for the entire barre3 brand overhaul, which included: a full responsive ecommerce site, a micro Challenge-specific site, print collateral for in-studio marketing and branding, retail product, and Digital Ad, email and social campaigns.

barre3 Retail

Barre3 didn't have a retail program when I started working there in 2012. Coming from a product development background, I knew that the right retail products would create “human billboards” for the brand, generating both increased profits and powerful grassroots marketing opportunities. So I spearhead the creative direction, growth and expansion of the barre3 retail line into a must-have boutique fitness clothing line. By 2015, the line sold over a million dollars through a combination of online and in-studio sales.

To bring our retail program to life, I directed trend research, set the look and feel of each season through mood boards, led product design and development, oversaw quality control with printers and vendors, directed photo shoots for both lifestyle and stills, and developed marketing campaign strategy for the online shop and in-studio retail experience.

barre3 Social

Creative DirectionPhotography DirectionCurated Storyline Photography

Barre3 Social platform allowed us to transform barre3 from a beloved workout to a sought after lifestyle. Here we focused not only on the 60 minutes of class time, but also the other 23 hours of the day: friendships, family, nutrition, and overall health, with of course a health dose of retail. Our goal was to showcase a balanced, happy, attainable lifestyle. This social conversation elevated barre3 to be the leader in the Barre industry because it formed such a profoundly loyal community. No other Barre company has nailed that like barre3 did. That powerful community was the catalyst for some of our most amazing collaborations, including: Dr. Oz, Every Mother Counts with Christy Turlington, Well & Good, MZ Wallace and many more.

I led Creative Directed for our creative and marketing teams, including: set monthly themes, directed photoshoots, sometimes I was the photographer, selected final imagery, created illustrations, edited imagery, and finalized campaigns. Our team was talented and all hands on deck, special shout out to Sara Schumacher, my lead designer on many project—I learned as much from her and she did from me.

barre3 Holiday Campaign

Creative DirectionPhotography DirectionProduct Development

We set lofty goals for barre3’s 2015 holiday season: this would be our first fully comprehensive holiday campaign, launched across all digital, in-studio, retail and social platforms. The primary sales objective was class packages and retail puchases in the studio, as well as barre3.com subscriptions and retail purchases online.

Our first task was establishing a theme that carefully balanced a message of giving while also being a means to market. “All is Bright” was the perfect vehicle to shine barre3’s positive ethos during a loud and overly saturated season.

Inspired by gold foil, clean design and barre3’s signature triangles, “All is Bright” sprang to life as a die-cut metal foil sign that we shot and used in collateral throughout all mediums: Posters, Fill-in-the-blank resolution cards for in-studio, gift cards, studio installations, and a dynamic social campaign. We also created a limited-edition retail collection that included mugs, apparel, jewelry, and journals.

The result was a huge success across corporate studios, online, and franchisee studios, breaking records and being the most successful sales campaign to date.

Nike Womens

While at Swift, I was Lead Designer for their Nike Womens account and tasked to created a series of email newsletters, social creative, Ads and promotional print collateral.

This was a brand I instantly sank my creative chomps into. I related to the demographic, thoroughly enjoyed learning more about 'her', the analytics of who she was and how she wanted to be engaged. The aspirational photography, street style themes and hand drawn illustrations made this a very fun brand to work on.

Blend Coffee Rebrand

Creative DirectionBrandingGraphic Design

When I began working with Blend Coffee Shop in North Portland, Oregon, the shop had just changed ownership and was about to embark on a full remodel and rebrand. The client wanted the updated brand to have a urban/rustic feel: Think raw wood edges, steel and concrete details, Edison lights mixed with with an old-world elegance. We created a full business suite, brick and mortar marketing material, social, and internal/external signage. The final results completely transformed the space into an urban retreat. The coffee shop already known for killer cappuccinos was now elevated to new favorite hangout status, every table filled with caffeinated customers drinking in the new aesthetic.

Nike Training Club

Web Design

While at Swift, I was lead designer for the Nike Training Club digital marketing campaign, including: both static and rich media Ads, email banners and social creative. The visuals shown here are just a taste of the 30+ set of banner Ads.

This was such a fun campaign to work on, particularly working with the Nike staff, epic photography, and ground breaking concept at the time. It turned me into a die hard NTC fan, I still have and use the app today.

Atlas Snowshoes

As Lead Designer for Atlas Snowshoes, I came on at a very exciting time. Atlas had recently been acquired by K2 Sports, which meant an opportunity to completely transform the look of the brand. It was a full redesign, from product to marketing, and the result was a 40% increase in sales two years in a row.

This was my first product development role; bringing 2D design to life was an extremely rewarding challenge. However, what I found to be the most fulfilling was having my hands in all aspects of the process: from branding to product development, photoshoot direction, marketing and website development. In doing so, I learned that I excelled at seeing the whole picture and then executing down to the last detail. It was here that I discovered what I truly love doing—elevating ideas to lifestyle brands.

2010 Olympics

Product development

I had the honor and privilege to be the hard-goods lead designer for the 2010 Olympics in Whistler, Canada. This was a fantastic experience working with such a fabulous, detail oriented team. I got the chance to travel up to the Olympic head quarters for the kick-off and enjoyed the games live in Whistler. Loved every minute of it.

K2 Women Skis

Product DevelopmentBrandingGraphic DesignWeb Design

While I was at K2 Sports, I worked in their in-house creative agency, The Sandbox, who worked for all brands under the K2 Sports umbrella: K2 Skis, K2 Snowboards, Line Skis, Ride Snowboards, Atlas Snowshoe, 51/50 Snowboards, Tubbs Snowshoes, Full Tilt boots, K2 Skate, Zoot, Madshus, and Powderidge.

The Herb Shoppe Rebrand

Creative DirectionBrandingGraphic DesignPackaging Design

Griffin Skate Deck

Illustration

This collaboration art piece was shown in two different group shows: Portland and Aspen. I took the first pass, and Artist Stanley Bell finished the piece—it was great fun! I’m featuring it here to show that I am a creative down to my bones...I love creating interesting, beautiful work from pixels to paint.

Multi-media: sharpies, acrylic paint, newspaper, spray-paint.

Creative Recreation

Graphic Design

I love being able to be creative outside of the work place, it fills my cup and keeps things fun. And what better than to make something special for a best friends Birthday!

When a close friend was turning 30, we thru a big party in Cabo and surprised her and the rest of the party with these: the females wore these tanks, while the men had a different black Tee version. And everyone drank lots of tecquila. #winwin